Elon Musk unveils his first Los Angeles-area tunnel

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla Motors,
has unveiled the first tunnel completed by the underground transit venture firm he launched
two years ago. Lee Seung-jae reports. There’s nothing more irritating than traffic,
traffic and more traffic. But now, entrepreneur Elon Musk has unveiled
the first underground tunnel to remedy LA’s infamously depressing traffic. It’s also the first tunnel completed by the
underground transit venture Boring Company, which Musk launched in 2016. In a 30-minute presentation carried by live
webcast on Tuesday,… the Tesla Motors CEO touted the newly finished one-point-eight-three
kilometer long tunnel segment,… as a breakthrough in the low-cost, fast-digging technology being
pioneered by Boring Company. The tunnel was excavated along a path that
doesn’t run through LA,… but under the tiny adjacent municipality of Hawthorne,… where
both his Boring Company and SpaceX rocket firm are headquartered. Musk put the total cost for the finished segment
at around 10-million U.S. dollars,… which includes the cost of excavation, internal
infrastructure, lighting, ventilation, safety systems, communications and a track. By comparison,… digging a mile of tunnel
through traditional engineering methods costs up to a billion dollars and takes three to
six months. When in full operation,… the so-called ‘loop’
system will consist of passenger and automobile-carry platforms called ‘skates’ that can travel
through the tunnels by way of electric power. Musk says, alternatively, cars could be outfitted
with retractable side wheels,… allowing them to travel through the loop autonomously. It’s hoped the tunnel will eventually be connected
to a network of other tunnels, yet to be built. Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.